CHINA COUNTRY REPORT CHINA COUNTRY REPORT CHINA COUNTRY REPORT WRITTEN BY: Yolanda Smits EDITED BY: Yudhishthir Raj Isar GRAPHICS & LAY OUT BY: Guillemette Madinier and Sarah Sajn DATE OF PUBLICATION: 19 May 2014 The content of this report does not reflect the official opinion of the European Union. Responsibility for the information and views expressed therein lies entirely with the author(s). © 2013-2014 Preparatory Action ‘Culture in the EU's External Relations’ COUNTRY REPORT CHINA | 2 preparatory action CULTURE in EU EXTERNAL RELATIONS TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................................... 3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .................................................................................................................. 4 OVERVIEW ................................................................................................................................... 6 EXTERNAL CULTURAL RELATIONS IN THE CULTURAL POLICY CONTEXT .......................................... 11 The main elements of the Chinese strategy for culture in external relations .......................... 11 Chinese governmental bodies dealing with culture in external relations ................................ 14 Provincial and local strategies/policies/approaches ................................................................ 17 Geographical priorities ............................................................................................................. 19 Relations with cultural institutions and civil society ................................................................ 22 Cultural events .......................................................................................................................... 23 Funding ..................................................................................................................................... 25 CULTURAL RELATIONS WITH THE EU: REALITIES AND EXPECTATIONS ............................................ 27 China and individual EU Member States .................................................................................. 27 China-EU relations .................................................................................................................... 28 Relations with foreign cultural institutions/centres/NGOs ...................................................... 34 Chinese perceptions of the added value of a potential EU strategy for culture in external relations .................................................................................................................................... 35 CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................................................................. 39 ANNEXES..................................................................................................................................... 41 Annex I: Methodology and list of people consulted ................................................................ 41 Annex II: EU-Chinese joint programmes and initiatives ........................................................... 43 Annex III: Bibliography and references..................................................................................... 45 Annex IV: Overview interviews with Chinese and European stakeholders .............................. 48 COUNTRY REPORT CHINA | 3 preparatory action CULTURE in EU EXTERNAL RELATIONS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The economic rise of China during the last decade has strongly influenced its appeal to the rest of the world. This has led the Chinese government to increase the use of culture in external relations as a tool to shape the perception and image of China abroad and expand its international influence. Globalization has given culture a new value and status as a tool of China´s ‘soft power’. Yet China has been relatively slow in embracing the concept of ‘soft power’ and investing substantially in culture in its external relations. In 2007, President Hu Jintao announced at the Communist Party Congress that culture was of strategic importance for the image of China and its economic development. This policy prompted a shift in focus from cultural exchange to cultural trade, from culture as a means to promote mutual understanding or the image of China abroad to culture as a resource that can generate income and other economic benefits. Yet while culture in external relations has become significantly more important in recent years, China does not have a masterminded strategy for this purpose. The relevant activities in its 11th and 12th Five-Year Plans and follow-up programmes are not the result of a coordinated approach amongst its ministries and other governmental bodies. The country appears still to be in the process of learning and trying out different possibilities and options. Apart from investing heavily in the cultural and creative industries (turnover of 208 billion euros and 3.48 per cent of GDP in 2012) the Chinese government has also invested in education, communication and information. A good example is the establishment of the Confucius Institutes around the world to promote Chinese language and culture abroad. There are currently 456 Confucius Institutes and plans to have 1,000 in place by 2020. To expand the number of institutes as quickly as possible the Chinese government is establishing joint ventures with foreign universities. This would, in their view, create a win-win situation for most western universities facing budget cuts due to the economic crisis. There are no geographical priorities with regard to the location of these entities and many are being created in response to growing demand from foreign universities. China is also planning to increase the number of its Cultural Centres abroad from 14 to 50 by 2020. In order to provide a Chinese perspective on world events, the government has set up a 24- hour news channel (a corporation between the official press agency Xinhua and the public television broadcaster CCTV) and an international newspaper (Daily China). At central government level, the Ministries of Culture, Foreign Affairs, Education and Commerce have the competence to deal with culture in external relations. Regional and local governments are also entitled to engage in cultural cooperation with foreign authorities and cultural institutions. They have taken an active role in setting up culture-orientated development strategies and developed their own policies for cultural cooperation with foreign countries. In particular, the major Chinese cities have espoused the ‘creative cities’ discourse and have adopted plans to enhance local culture and creativity. For example, Beijing, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Qingdao are becoming the leading ‘creative cities’ of China. The local COUNTRY REPORT CHINA | 4 preparatory action CULTURE in EU EXTERNAL RELATIONS authorities also deal with the financing and selection of international projects and cooperate with state-owned companies to set up large-scale projects. China´s priority countries for culture in external relations are in line with its foreign policy strategies (both political and economic). The US is the first priority and the EU is the second. Japan follows at some distance. Also its Asian neighbours are becoming relevant. Chinese public and private stakeholders on the whole see an added value in an EU Strategy for external cultural relations. The Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have in the last decade improved their cultural cooperation with the EC and wish to continue the dialogues that have been set up. An EU strategy will in their view benefit the smaller EU Member States, as the large countries are already quite active in China. It will also be a means to increase the opportunities for Chinese cultural institutions and artists to operate in various EU Member States during their stay in Europe. An EU strategy would also allow the EU and China to reflect on developing a joint strategy towards third countries to counter US dominance and promote access in the global marketplace for European and Chinese cultural goods and services. The areas for cooperation suggested by Chinese public stakeholders are largely in line with the Five-Year Plans, programmes and the joint EU-China Declarations: transfer of knowledge for the development of innovative products; access to markets in the EU; management of cultural institutions and CCIs; cooperation in the field of intangible cultural heritage as well as the increase of exchanges in the area of contemporary performing and visual arts. City-to-city cooperation and the expansion of European and Chinese networks/alliances of creative cities were also highlighted. Chinese private stakeholders are however more critical. Although they support an EU strategy for culture in external relations, they hope that it will not turn out to be merely a ‘soft power’ tool of the EU institutions or another strategy to impose a Eurocentric perspective on a new and attractive economic sector. People in China lack awareness about the EU and culture could be a way to inform them about the changes taking place in Europe and the rest of the world. Many find culture to be a better tool of intercultural communication than trade or politics. Activities in the arts and culture could serve as the ideal mediators between the two very different value systems, through their capacity to express and convey mind-sets and concepts